It’s been an entire 3 years since we ran our last Best Holster survey, and the wait did not disappoint. The landscape has changed, with new holster companies being born, and some companies have gone out of business. Not to mention the new products available.
This year, we expanded the survey to include 10 questions, asking both the good and the bad when it comes to customer experiences with holster companies and their products.
The Questions asked:
- What Brand of Holster(s) have you ever OWNED?
- What Brand of Holster(s) have you actually USED on a REGULAR BASIS?
- Which brand is the MOST COMFORTABLE?
- Which brand is the BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK?
- Which brand(s) have received your REPEAT BUSINESS?
- Which brand has the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE?
- Which brand(s) have you ever RETURNED FOR A REFUND?
- Which brand(s) have you ever needed to RETURN FOR A REPLACEMENT?
- Which brand(s) have BROKEN (during normal use) to the point of being non-functional?
- Which brand(s) would you NEVER BUY FROM AGAIN?
The Results Are Split Up Into Four Categories
To make this as fair as possible, we’ve split up the results into four separate categories, based on the number of votes received:
> 1,000 Votes (14 holster companies)
250 – 999 Votes (15 holster companies)
50 – 249 Votes (17 holster companies)
1 – 49 Votes (15 holster companies)
This allows the holster companies with smaller social media followings to have separate results from those with massive followings, as well as trying to remove any bias that could be incorporated into those holster companies with lower voting numbers.
How We Calculated This Year’s Winners
This year, we did things a little different. In the last survey, we did the following equation to find the Utilization Rate for each holster company:
Holsters Used / Holsters Owned = Utilization Rate
For example, if 100 people say they own a holster from X holster company, and of those 100 people, only 50 people actually use the holster, we’d have a Utilization Rate of 50%. The 3 companies in each tier with the highest Utilization Rate were the top 3. The one with the best Utilization Rate was crowned the winner of the survey.
This year’s equation is much different and more thorough. We looked at all the good and all the bad. Here’s what we did:
Out of the 10 questions asked, questions 2-6 were positive, while the last 4 were negative. We took the percentages for each positive question and got an average for each company. We did the same thing with the 4 negative questions.
EXAMPLE: Brandon’s Holster Company
Positives: Utilization Rate, 72%; Comfort Rate, 68%; Best Bang for Buck Rate, 61%; Repeat Business Rate, 70%; Best Customer Service Rate, 74%
Negatives: Refund Rate, 10%; Replacement Rate, 8%; Broken Rate, 12%; Never Buy Again Rate, 13%
Average of Positives: 69%
Average of Negatives: 10.75%
Average Positive minus Average Negative: 58.25%
And that final number is what determined the overall winners.
The overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners are taken from the 1st tier (over 1,000 votes).
Aside from the overall winners, we also have a winner for each category. For the first time, badges will be rewarded to winners for their respective categories.
Concealed carriers did not disappoint this year!
Total Voters: 13,792
Total Votes for Holsters Owned: 61,395
That’s right; armed citizens came out and took the time to share their experiences and thoughts on over 60 different holster companies.
Now, let’s get into the winners of Concealed Nation’s Best Holster in the History of Ever Survey for 2019!
1ST PLACE WINNER – GOLD
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 71.51% OVERALL RATE
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2ND PLACE WINNER – SILVER
ALIEN GEAR HOLSTERS – 57.25% OVERALL RATE
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3RD PLACE WINNER – BRONZE
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 56.53% OVERALL RATE
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To find the Utilization Rate, we looked at two numbers for each holster company: The number owned vs the number actually used. With these figures, we came up with the following Utilization Rates, based on the four category splits as described above.
HIGHER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 89.92% *UTILIZATION WINNER*
ALIEN GEAR HOLSTERS – 80.69%
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 79.22%
CROSSBREED HOLSTERS – 72.26%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
JM4 TACTICAL – 68.90%
WE THE PEOPLE HOLSTERS – 54.68%
STEALTHGEARUSA – 54.31%
REMORA – 50.21%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
THEIS HOLSTERS – 72.27%
TIER 1 CONCEALED – 67.62%
BLACK ARCH HOLSTERS – 67.14%
STONER HOLSTERS – 58.67%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
BLACK RHINO CONCEALMENT – 100%
CYA – 100%
SNEAKY PETE – 100%
TULSTER – 97.67%
The next survey question asked voters to choose the most comfortable holster that they’ve owned, out of the selections they made in question 1.
HIGHER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 71.61% *MOST COMFORTABLE WINNER*
ALIEN GEAR HOLSTERS – 62.99%
CROSSBREED HOLSTERS – 51.26%
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 48.93%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
JM4 TACTICAL – 39.93%
STEALTHGEARUSA – 30.26%
N82 TACTICAL – 22.58%
MITCH ROSEN – 12.03%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
THEIS HOLSTERS – 47.06%
TIER 1 CONCEALED – 30.33%
BLACK ARCH HOLSTERS – 28.64%
SQUARED AWAY CUSTOMS – 26.32%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
WINTHROP HOLSTERS – 61.54%
BLACK RHINO CONCEALMENT – 58.82%
TULSTER – 39.53%
SNEAKY PETE – 35.71%
Next, we asked voters to tell us which holster purchase was the Best Bang for their Buck. Allowed just one selection, each one counts!
HIGHER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 71.80% *BEST BANG FOR BUCK WINNER*
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 65.83%
ALIEN GEAR HOLSTERS – 64.85%
CROSSBREED HOLSTERS – 45.73%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
JM4 TACTICAL – 32.86%
WE THE PEOPLE HOLSTERS – 21.31%
STEALTHGEARUSA – 16.34%
VERSACARRY – 14.10%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
THEIS HOLSTERS – 48.74%
THE WELL ARMED WOMAN – 23.42%
SQUARED AWAY CUSTOMS – 22.81%
TIER 1 CONCEALED – 20.08%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
BLACK RHINO CONCEALMENT – 70.59%
WINTHROP HOLSTERS – 53.85%
TAGUA – 53.33%
ACCELERATED-SOLUTIONS – 44.44%
Next, we asked voters to tell us which holster companies earned their repeat business.
HIGHER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 76.87% *REPEAT BUSINESS WINNER*
ALIEN GEAR HOLSTERS – 70.28%
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 68.65%
CROSSBREED HOLSTERS – 56.01%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
JM4 TACTICAL – 45.23%
STEALTHGEARUSA – 33.43%
G-CODE HOLSTERS – 27.03%
WE THE PEOPLE HOLSTERS – 24.97%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
THEIS HOLSTERS – 53.78%
SQUARED AWAY CUSTOMS – 43.86%
TIER 1 CONCEALED – 39.34%
BLACK ARCH HOLSTERS – 37.09%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
WINTHROP HOLSTERS – 61.54%
BLACK RHINO CONCEALMENT – 58.82%
TULSTER – 48.84%
TAGUA – 46.67%
According to customers, which holster company has the best customer service?
HIGHER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 74.05% *BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE WINNER*
ALIEN GEAR HOLSTERS – 60.83%
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 51.90%
CROSSBREED HOLSTERS – 47.16%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
JM4 TACTICAL – 36.75%
STEALTHGEARUSA – 15.89%
WE THE PEOPLE HOLSTERS – 13.89%
N82 TACTICAL – 11.29%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
THEIS HOLSTERS – 53.78%
LAS CONCEALMENT – 27.45%
THE WELL ARMED WOMAN – 25.95%
SQUARED AWAY CUSTOMS – 24.56%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
SNEAKY PETE – 50.00%
WINTHROP HOLSTERS – 46.15%
BLACK RHINO CONCEALMENT – 35.29%
LENWOOD LEATHER – 33.33%
Now, we’re getting into the bad spots. For this question, voters selected all holster companies that they’ve received a refund from. The percentage for each is the percentage of people who say they’ve owned a holster from that company, and that they’ve asked for and received a refund. In this case, the lower the percentage, the better. No awards for this category, just stats.
LOWER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
STICKY HOLSTERS – 4.01%
BIANCHI – 5.14%
DESANTIS – 5.22%
GALCO – 5.34%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
DON HUME – 1.95%
MITCH ROSEN – 2.90%
REMORA – 4.72%
RAVEN CONCEALMENT SYSTEMS – 4.88%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
THEIS HOLSTERS – 5.04%
OLD FAITHFUL HOLSTERS – 6.43%
HIGH NOON HOLSTERS – 6.80%
HIDDEN HYBRID HOLSTERS – 7.48%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
ACCELERATED-SOLUTIONS – 0.00%
BLACK RHINO CONCEALMENT – 0.00%
WINTHROP HOLSTERS – 0.00%
OFF THE GRID CONCEPTS – 3.23%
For this question, voters selected all holster companies that they’ve needed a replacement from. The percentage for each is the percentage of people who say they’ve owned a holster from that company, and that they’ve asked for and received a replacement. In this case, the lower the percentage, the better. No awards for this category, just stats.
LOWER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
STICKY HOLSTERS – 1.72%
DESANTIS – 2.71%
GALCO – 3.27%
BIANCHI – 3.68%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
DON HUME – 1.19%
MITCH ROSEN – 1.34%
TALON HOLSTERS – 2.73%
COMP-TAC – 4.60%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
SQUARED AWAY CUSTOMS – 3.51%
HIDDEN HYBRID HOLSTERS – 4.76%
TIER 1 CONCEALED – 4.92%
THEIS HOLSTERS – 5.04%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
KINETIC HOLSTER CO – 0.00%
KINETIC CONCEALMENT – 0.00%
CYA – 0.00%
TAGUA – 0.00%
SMART CARRY – 0.00%
For this question, voters selected all holsters from companies that have broken, to the point of being non-functional. The percentage for each is the percentage of people who say they’ve owned a holster from that company, and that one of those holsters broke to the point of being non-functional. In this case, the lower the percentage, the better. No awards for this category, just stats.
LOWER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 2.09%
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 2.36%
DESANTIS – 3.11%
STICKY HOLSTERS – 3.15%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
MITCH ROSEN – 1.11%
REMORA – 2.36%
DON HUME – 2.49%
CLINGER HOLSTERS – 4.03%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
THE WELL ARMED WOMAN – 3.16%
TREX ARMS – 5.08%
STONER HOLSTERS – 5.33%
HIGH NOON HOLSTERS – 5.34%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
TAGUA – 0.00%
WINTHROP HOLSTERS – 0.00%
SMART CARRY – 0.00%
KINETIC CONCEALMENT – 5.13%
The last question was simple, to the point, and painful for some holster companies; Which holster companies would you never buy from again? The percentage for each is the percentage of people who say they’ve owned a holster from that company, and say they would never make another purchase. In this case, the lower the percentage, the better. No awards for this category, just stats.
LOWER NUMBER = BETTER
TOP 4 – OVER 1,000 VOTES
VEDDER HOLSTERS – 5.10%
CONCEALMENT EXPRESS – 9.36%
DESANTIS – 9.84%
CROSSBREED HOLSTERS – 10.20%
TOP 4 – 250-999 VOTES
MITCH ROSEN – 8.69%
DON HUME – 11.48%
COMP-TAC – 16.16%
STEALTHGEARUSA – 17.10%
TOP 4 – 50-249 VOTES
TIER 1 CONCEALED – 20.49%
THEIS HOLSTERS – 24.37%
HIGH NOON HOLSTERS – 25.24%
BLACK ARCH HOLSTERS – 25.35%
TOP 4 – 1-49 VOTES
RHINO CONCEALMENT – 0.00%
CYA – 0.00%
SNEAKY PETE – 0.00%
TULSTER – 6.98%
With all this data, we can come up with some pretty interesting statistics, such as the average number of holsters owned per person.
Here’s what we got:
We had a total of 13,792 participants in the survey.
All of those people combined say that they have owned 61,395 holsters. This number is ‘at least’, since we only ask what brands they’ve owned, and not the actual number of holsters owned from each brand.
Even so, we can do some easy division and find that the average holster-buying citizen owns 4.45 holsters. That’s up from the last survey, which gave us the number 3.46 per person.
We all know that most of us have a drawer filled with unused holsters, but what’s the typical dust-collection pile look like? We know that the average number of holsters owned is 4.45, so now we need to find the number of holsters actually used.
Out of the 13,792 participants, they said that they regularly use 33,011 of the total number of owned holsters; 61,395.
Division time: The average holster-buying citizen regularly uses 2.39 of their 4.45 holsters, or roughly 54% of their stash of holsters.
Now is the fun part… or, not so fun part (for your wallet). Since we know the average number of holsters owned vs the average number of holsters used, we can find out how many holsters collect dust and was money not-so-well spent.
Holsters Owned (4.45) minus Holsters Used (2.39) = 2.06 holsters sitting in a drawer, sad from non-use.
The bigger numbers: 61,395 bought holsters, and 33,011 used holsters. We’ve got 28,384 unused holsters. And that’s just between 13,729 people.
Just with the participants in this survey, and with an average holster price of $70, we can conclude that these poor people (us included) wasted a total of roughly $1,986,880 of their hard earned dollars. Two Million Dollars.
If you’ve ever been curious about refund, replacement or broken stats, rest assured that it won’t affect the majority. Based on the data collected, we can conclude the following information:
How common are refunds on holsters?
For the 4.45 average-owned holsters, your average is 8.65% of needing a refund.
How common is it to need a replacement holster?
For the 4.45 average-owned holsters, your average is 6.34% of needing a replacement.
How common is it for a holster to break beyond repair?
For the 4.45 average-owned holsters, your average is 7.18% of one of those holsters breaking to the point of being non-functional.
The average holster-buying citizen spends $311.50 on holsters.
The average holster-buying citizen wastes $144.20 on holsters.
We are now going to get crazy by expanding all the numbers out to concealed carriers across the Country.
A recent study tells us that there are an estimated 17.25 Million concealed carry permits issued in the US. We know that many people get their permits and ever carry, or wait to carry, so we can’t say that those 17.25 Million people have purchased holsters.
But let’s say that half of them have purchased a holster. That would make 8,625,000 people who purchased at least one holster.
If we use our numbers above, we can come up with some additional statistics.
Average number of holsters purchased per person: 4.45
If we take that number and multiply it by the Country-wide number of permit holders (8,625,000), we get 38,381,250 holsters purchased.
With that same average holster price of $70, that’s $2,686,687,500 spent on holsters. Nearly 2.7 Billion.
What about actually used holsters?
8,625,000 x 2.39 = 20,613,750 used holsters Country-wide.
That’s money well spent, at $1,442,962,500
What about unused holsters?
8,625,000 x 2.06 = 17,767,500 unused holsters Country-wide.
Money down the drain. But how much? 17,767,500 x $70 = $1,243,725,000 spent on holsters that were thrown in a drawer. Yup, that’s $1.24 Billion.
We won’t dwell on this, but it’s information that’s just as important as the rest. From each category, we will list the lowest performers in tier’s 1, 2 and 3.
Lowest Utilization Rates
Uncle Mike’s, 29.87%; Talon Holsters, 23.05%; SHTF Gear, 32.56%
Lowest Comfort Rates
Blade-Tech Holsters, 2.57%; Talon Holsters, 2.73%; SHTF Gear, 3.49%
Lowest Bang For Buck Rate
Bianchi, 2.18%; Talon Holsters, 2.73%; Old Faithful Holsters, 2.34%
Lowest Repeat Business Rate
Uncle Mike’s, 11.86%; Urban Carry, 6.70%; SHTF Gear, 10.47%
Lowest Customer Service Rate
Uncle Mike’s, 1.18%; Don Hume, 1.63%; Old Faithful Holsters, 5.85%
Highest Refund Rate
Bravo Concealment, 12.17%; Raw Dog Tactical, 16.57%; Aegis Holsters, 13.48%
Highest Replacement Rate
Alien Gear Holsters, 10.99%; Raw Dog Tactical, 11.24%; Cleveland Holsters, 13.75%
Highest Broken (beyond being functional) Rate
Uncle Mike’s, 14.98%; Raw Dog Tactical, 10.67%; Cleveland Holsters, 12.50%
Highest Never Buy From Again Rate
Uncle Mike’s, 35.89%; Urban Carry, 46.92%; LAS Concealment, 56.86%
Closing this survey out, we want to thank the thousands of concealed carriers who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences with the various holster companies.
The last piece is here, because you voted it in:
Here it is, your Worst-Voted Holster for the 2019 survey.
Uncle Mike’s
5 ‘top worst’ placements
Overall Rating: -6.85%
